March 2016

UAE-backed Security Belt Forces are formed (now totalling up to 15,000 troops active in several southern governorates, including Aden, Lahj, and Abyan).

April 2016

Construction starts on a detention facility in the UAE/coalition base in Aden’s Bureiqa district, according to satellite imagery analysis. Imagery shows the detention area expanding throughout 2016 and early 2017, aligning with the waves of arrests documented by Amnesty International and others.

April 2016

UAE ground forces, backed by air support, wage a successful operation to retake al-Mukalla, Hadramawt from al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The UAE-trained and funded Hadrami Elite Forces, established earlier that year, play a key role in the battle.

August 2017

Yemen’s Prosecutor General reopens prosecution offices in Aden and other southern governorates that had been closed amid the conflict.

October 2017

Yemeni prosecutors gain access to at least two UAE-supervised detention facilities in Aden. They begin interrogating hundreds of detainees and issuing release orders.

November 2017

Hundreds of detainees who had been forcibly disappeared for months are moved from unofficial detention facilities to newly constructed Bir Ahmed II in Aden and the Central Prison in al-Mukalla, Hadramawt.